Hawks Change Top Line, Not Result

April 01, 1994|By Robert Markus, Tribune Staff Writer.

It was only a few days ago that Blackhawks coach Darryl Sutter was proclaiming the line of Joe Murphy-Jeremy Roenick-Tony Amonte to be a line for the ages, a line that could stay together for as long as their careers lasted.

But by Wednesday he was already hedging and on Thursday night Sutter decided to do some fine tuning on a power plant that had been sounding a little sour. His little bit of tinkering turned out to be a major engine overhaul. And it didn't fix the problem. It might have made it worse.

Sutter started out by tearing up his No. 1 line-dropping Murphy for Paul Ysebaert-even though it had accounted for both Hawks goals in Wednesday night's loss in Hartford. Then he had to sit back and watch the Washington Capitals tear up his Blackhawks 6-3 in the Stadium.

It wasn't until the last five minutes when Roenick scored his 44th and 45th goals in a space of less than two minutes that the crowd of 17,569 had a chance to cheer. Roenick, with 101 points, is the only Blackhawk ever to reach 100 three years in a row.

But the Hawks are now 0-5-1 in their last six starts and desperately awaiting the return of goaltender Ed Belfour. Jeff Hackett couldn't hack it again for the Hawks and has yet to win in front of a Stadium crowd. He's 0-8-2 in his last 10 starts and 0-3-1 since taking over for Belfour.

The Capitals' goal was manned by Byron Dafoe, who had made only one previous NHL start. They could just as well have played actor Willem Dafoe or writer Daniel Defoe in the nets for all the offense the Hawks could generate in the first 55 minutes.

Because center Brent Sutter was out with a sore hip, the rest of the Hawks' lines had to be juggled as well and here's how well the new line combinations worked: the Hawks didn't get a shot for the first 9:20 of the game. They had five in the first period and Randy Cunneyworth had three of them-two coming while the Hawks were shorthanded. Only one other forward, Christian Ruuttu, put a shot on target.

By the time the period was over the Capitals were leading 3-0 and the Hawks' nets were being tended by Christian Soucy, who had even less experience than Dafoe. He never had set skate on an NHL rink before relieving the beleaguered Hackett after the third Washington goal at 16:39.

The Capitals' first-period blitz was started by defenseman Sylvain Cote, who was left untended in front of Hackett's cage to bat in a pass from Michal Pivonka, who dug the puck off the boards behind the net.

The next two goals were on power plays. Joe Juneau started and finished the play, passing from out front to Pivonka behind the net. Pivonka fed to Pat Peake at the side of the cage and Hackett stopped that one, but Juneau skated in to pick up the rebound and score. It is a measure of just how far this team has fallen recently that it came just 10 seconds after Robert Dirk went off for roughing. This from a team that once led the league in penalty killing.

The third goal started on a giveaway by defenseman Neil Wilkinson, who tried a fancy pass off the boards instead of clearing the puck while trying to kill another penalty. Peake pounced on it and fed to Keith Jones, who was stopped on his first attempt, but collared the rebound and sent it home.

Hackett was sent out for more punishment in the second period, but first the Hawks finally got on the board on Ruuttu's power-play goal. Ruuttu picked the puck off the side boards, kicked it out toward the faceoff circle and put it over Dafoe's outstretched left glove.

The euphoria, such as it was, didn't last long, however, because 2 1/2 minutes later Kevin Hatcher, freshly sprung from the penalty box, skated in on a rink-length dash with only Wilkinson to beat and slipped the puck between Hackett's pads for an unassisted goal that made it 4-1.

Things got even uglier when Jones scored his second goal of the game with only 27 seconds remaining in the period. Randy Burridge took the puck away from Gary Suter behind the net and tried to stuff it through Hackett. He failed, but Hackett also failed to control the rebound and Jones flicked it home for the 5-1 lead.